I am an evil giraffe. Who no longer blogs about politics.

[YET ANOTHER UPDATE]: Since this post has long since left the front page, I suggest that those of you upset that Jane Yolen has been accurately pegged as a hateful bigot go here instead to waste time writing bitter screeds about censorship that will be sent directly to spam… unread*, unloved, and unremembered. Aside from everything else, the site automatically closes threads after a fixed length of time; this will give you a few extra days to distract you from the spiritual void that forces you to play moth to the flame.

Hey, this is how I got all those donations for the iPad2, remember? I don’t know why it works, either, but it apparently does and I don’t argue with any harmless societal quirk that feeds my gaming habit. Which, unfortunately, seems to be happening with the iPad2, too. Surely there’s a non-iPhone digital video camera that the iPad2 version of iMovies likes…

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[UPDATE] Thanks for the hate mail, folks! Glad to get confirmation that I struck a nerve.

[The Capital Times]: What had you heard about our senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, before you read my piece and what concerns you about the idea of him reading one of your stories to children?

[Jane Yolen]: He is a Republican junior senator associated with the Tea Party. And that makes me think that either he is 1. A True Believer in the Tea Party NoNothingness which frightens me or 2. Kowtowing to it for votes which possibly frightens me more. Since the Tea Party (and alas much of the Republican Party these days) are the ones behind the notions of breaking unions, throwing librarians out of their jobs, and defunding education, I think it is more than a tad bit disingenuous for such politicians to be out in libraries reading books to children who will have no libraries to visit if we listen to the Tea Party.

The book in question was “How do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms?” Apparently, the answer is “Only in a proper, progressive manner.” Personally, if I was a children’s author I might be a little more careful about spewing out my elemental hatred of a demographic known for its relatively larger family sizes, but I suppose that Yolen has not yet realized that potential readers can find out about these petty little prejudices these days. Either that, or it’s simply more important to her that she remind the world that courtesy and politeness only be shown to what Yolen apparently considers real people: that is to say, non-conservatives.

One final point: it is of course perfectly acceptable for Jane Yolen to be a hateful bigot in this country: we have, after all, freedom of speech and expression here. It’s also perfectly acceptable to suggest that you consider that hateful bigotry when you make the financial decision of what books to buy for your children. Or, for that matter, which books are to be read to them by their teachers; I’m probably going to have to make sure that I have a conversation along those lines in a week or so when the school year starts for my eldest.

PS: “NoNothingness?” I assume that she’s referring to the Know-Nothing Party of the 19th century. Well, you have to expect that a former McGovern delegate who’ll actually admit to it these days isn’t going to be the best-educated person out there.

Well this just makes me sad I have quite a few of her adult novels and the dino books for kids were part of the nightly rotation. I bought quite a few as presents as well. Fortunately there are many good children’s books that I can purchase and not know what the author thinks of me or mine.

Jane Yolen: Google alert. Most of the time it is years out of date, and usually totally uninteresting. But this time, it pointed me to your piece, and I was alternately amused, bemused, and annoyed. Not at the writer of the article, but at the co-opting of my book for a politician’s photo op.

You know, i think she wouldn’t have near as much heartache about a “politician’s photo op” if it were, say, Obama who read that book to schoolchildren. Of Barney Frank, for that matter. They act in the proper way, you know….

I wonder if the “NoNothing” came from her or from the interviewer. If it’s from the interviewer attempting to transcribe her words, then put that alongside the confusion over “NUTS!” as an example of journalism schools covering themselves in glory.

“NoNothingness” is perfectly appropriate when describing the tea party, the initial ‘no’ cancelling the following ‘nothingness’ indicating that the tea party must be substantial. I guess Ms. Yolens needs to start running her net interview replies past a proofreader and/or editor…..

Liberals like to lecture the rest of us that an artist’s work should be evaluated on its own merits, and any political statements by the artist were irrelevant … as long as the artist is a left-winger. This was particularly common when Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda were expressing their pro-communist opinions — how dare those evil conservatives boycott a film just because it starred an apologist for totalitarian mass-murderers. But now I guess conservatives aren’t allowed to read a book by someone who despises them. Go figure.

She may also have been attempting a very clever rendition of the old and nonsensical “Party of No” bit. When asked if they stand for anything / will do anything / will compromise anything, I imagine Yolen might reply, the Tea Partiers would say, “No, nothing!” Then again, I would prefer to imagine it was an embarrassing word-choice gaffe.

Diane Ravitch has some interesting things to point out about Jane Yolen and authors like her in The Language Policehttp://tinyurl.com/4xqlz2m A shame; she used to be a pretty fair sf/fantasy author, but like Hubbard, she found a better con.

I have no idea where people like Ms. Yolen get the idea that if given free rein, the first thing Republicans, Conservatives and Tea Party types will do is rush right out and close all the libraries. I mean, I know a lot of political conservatives (being one myself), and I don’t know a single one who doesn’t have shelves full of books. I own probably a few thousand books myself, some of them written by Ms. Yolen. OTOH: when almost all spending has been taken off the table because it’s all under Entitlements (which Liberals typically champion), and if spending must be cut somewhere, maybe the only things left are libraries (and policemen, firemen, and other critical services). I suppose it’s our fault when the only thing that CAN get cut, gets cut? Yes. Of course it is.

The problem is that they’re not really what you’d call creative, Jeff. I mean, do I really need to tell you that there people out there that think that I’m an idiot, or who don’t get the concept of private property? Really good ones I might reproduce, but honestly mostly they’re just boring.

[…] a day, but apparently point out the extremely obvious statement that a children’s author is a hateful bigot (and, might I add: just a wee bit ignorant about her political opponents) and it grates so on […]

…Not to be rude about this, but being on DU doesn’t really count as ‘starting to go viral’ these days. It’s barely one-tenth of an Instalanche at this point; I’d be getting better traffic from secondary spillage off of one of the A-List blogs or sites.

[…] a since-passed-the-sell-date-commenter that my little grit-in-the-Left’s-self-regard that was this post about Jane Yolen supposedly got the attention of Neil Gaiman himself*; so I think that it’s a perfect time to […]

>>OTOH: when almost all spending has been taken off the table because it’s all under Entitlements (which Liberals typically champion), and if spending must be cut somewhere, maybe the only things left are libraries (and policemen, firemen, and other critical services). I suppose it’s our fault when the only thing that CAN get cut, gets cut? Yes. Of course it is.<<

I'm not hearing any mention of defense, it's not balanced to only cite entitlements as the untouchable item. And, if as the Right insists there's no way to raise taxes, then, yes, what's left is to cut those things that can be cut. I'm a Democrat, but willing to see some changes to entitlements. Where are you willing to compromise on, so we can keep things like libraries and other critical services?

Bonny: Of course you’re not hearing any mention of defense spending being cut. That’s because you prefer to act with the conservatives who exist in your head, rather than the ones who actually exist in the real world. Most of us are quite willing to concede that EVERY area of the budget needs cut, defense included. But to not recognize that entitlement spending is a far bigger threat to the future fiscal picture is delusional.

Oh, almost forgot this gem: “I’m a Democrat, but willing to see some changes to entitlements. Where are you willing to compromise on, so we can keep things like libraries and other critical services?” Number one, and I’m trying to be polite here, nobody cares what you’re willing to see changed. Are you a member of Congress? A state legislator, perhaps? No — you’re just a person like the rest of us. It’s not like you come here with authority to deal. It’s not like anyone here has the authority to deal. So a discussion on the subject would be nothing more than academic. Number two, a library is not a critical service within the context of the federal government — which is the budget we’re talking about, right? You want libraries kept open, take it up with your state and city officials.

Demosthenes: “isn’t that included in the point the author in question was attempting to make? “Number two, a library is not a critical service within the context of the federal government — which is the budget we’re talking about, right? You want libraries kept open, take it up with your state and city officials.” That perhaps those sympathetic to the Tea Party and it’s basic principles would see cuts in government spending to the point where we wouldn’t have public libraries like the one in which the senator was reading her book?

I’m going to give Damon the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn’t read the comment I was responding to, and so doesn’t realize that his comment is a bit of a non sequitur. But I’ll just do it the once.